The most immediate impact of the new government on sub-national climate policy is via changes at CLG rather than in climate change policy itself. Abolition of Regional Strategies appears to represent a big change in approach from Labour’s development of regional policy as a kind of meso-level to link the local and national.

There are implications for the making and implementation of policy and for organisations within the region; East Midlands Councils are the most immediately affected, winding down their strategy function possibly as soon as the end of June.?

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Both the coalition parties have shown antipathy towards regional government so the dismantling of one of its key functions is perhaps unsurprising, particularly within the context of the cuts required in the next Spending Review. However, the Strategies’ abolition is noticeable for its speed, and raises interesting questions of how climate policy will proceed.